I wrote an article for the SuperSite for Windows this morning, How Microsoft Can Fix Windows Phone in 2011, in which I described the high-level ways in which I believe Microsoft can shape its smart phone OS into its mainstream platform the future, displacing PC-based versions of Windows and rivaling Apple’s iOS.

Before that can happen, of course, there’s a lot of work to do. Windows Phone is very much a 1.0 release, with tons of missing features and functional gaps. So before my vision for nerdvana can come to fruition, Microsoft is going to have to fix all the minor issues with Windows Phone. Let’s give them a bit of help: Let me know which feature(s) you’d like to see added or fixed in Windows Phone. What’s missing? What’s wrong? Leave a comment, please, and let me know.

I’ll try to list all the bests ones here in the post itself. (Note that I’ll be gone for part of today, so excuse any delay.) I’ll get it started with a few obvious ones.

Enterprise: Full support for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies; VPN support

Service integration: Directly support popular third party services in the Pictures hub, including Flickr, SmugMug, Google PicasaWeb, and so on; direct support for other services elsewhere, including Twitter

Cloud-based backup: Provide a free MyPhone/KIN Studio-type service for all Windows Phone users, for free

Audio playback: Add an EQ, separate music playback from other audio levels

Ringtones: Support custom ringtones, notifications, and alarms

Mail app: Provide support for an integrated inbox that spans multiple accounts

Facebook account: Provide a more granular way to determine which Facebook content makes its way to the phone

Media playback: Support for DLNA push and pull in the core OS; two-way Media Center integration

Internet Explorer: Bring IE Mobile up to IE 9 desktop standards (as close as is feasible), with HTML 5, support, etc.; do not allow carriers to replace Bing search in browser unless you provide a way for user to switch it back

Photo sync: Allow for folder management, photo naming on import to PC, or allow for integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery or other photo importing applications

Performance: General improvements across the board

Accessibility: Match what Apple is doing for the vision impaired and others with disabilities

Messaging: Add support for video send

Consistent access to Bing and Zune services in all supported locales

Zune Pass with multiple Windows Live ID support (aka “Family Pass”)

Alarm app: Add a simple timer with countdown

SharePoint: Support non-UAG authentication

Developer: Increase support for all Windows Phone functions

Update: I’ve placed many (but not nearly all) of your suggestions into the list. Maybe it’s time to sort this and perhaps “weight” items by need. Regardless, thanks to everyone who’s contributed to already, and in so much depth, and so quickly. That’s just good stuff.

So what say to a second post where maybe each feature/bug fix request is separated out and we can all pick our top five or whatever?

172 Responses to How would you fix Windows Phone? (Updated)

The only thing that I want fixed that you haven’t mentioned is I want this microSD thing solved. If that means Microsoft/Samsung/AT&T need to post a list of cards with links to buy them and say, “These are the only cards that will work consistently, and even these aren’t so great,” the fine. If it means Microsoft puts out a patch (like Samsung and AT&T said was coming) that improves compatibility with other cards, which I find unlikely, then great. I want to be able to upgrade the storage on my Focus and not have to worry about syncing taking 20 years to complete or that my phone’s performance will degrade significantly.

Hell, even if Samsung comes out and admits that they did not test this feature properly and are going to have to side with Microsoft in saying we shouldn’t use microSD cards, that would be somewhat OK. It would become fine if Samsung included that they would refund their customers the cost of any microSD card(s) purchased with the intent of using in the Focus since I know I wasn’t the only person interested in the phone because of the expansion. Hell, limit it to 2 cards and only refund the lowest possible price that can be found in the region the phone was purchased (which I think is only the US and Canada).

I bought my focus on Black Friday and was able to get a compatible 16GB SanDisk microSD card @ the AT&T Store. They had 8, 16 and 32GB chips. They guaranteed it would work and so far it has worked flawlessly.

1. One very important feature thats missing is the Snooze button when a meeting pops up. The snooze is present but cannot be customized. In prior versions of Calender a meeting had an option where you could snooze it for 15 mins or 30 mins, 1 hour or may be 1 day. In WP7 you can either snooze it for its default 5 mins or dismiss it. Important feature which needs to be added.
2. You cannot set Out of Office message for Outlook from your WP7. You had an option to do this in WM 5, 6.0,6.1,6.5 but missing in WP7
3. When you install 3rd party tools and some of them lets you create docs or files which that app supports. But you cant back up these files. If the app is uninstalled you loose all your records.
My phone (Samsung Focus) did a factory reset on its own ( I still couldn’t figure out how it happened) and I lost all my data for 3rd party apps. I even lost my Excel Mobile spreadsheets as they don’t sync with Sky Drive.
I think its very important that we have a way in which we can backup our whole phone in the Sky Drive atleast the important docs we have on them.

The number one issue for me is hidden SSID support for WiFi networks. I work at a hospital that HAS to hide their wireless network. Every network device (even a Nintendo DS) supports this. Kind of embarrassing that this is not in Version 1

To expand on the Facebook integration needs, apps should have a way to integrate with Facebook without showing the Facebook login page in a WebBrowser control. First of all, XNA games can’t host the WebBrowser control. Secondly, if a user has already authenticated with Facebook in the OS, it’s a bad user experience to make them log in for each app. All they should have to do is authorize the permissions that the app needs, and this should be available via a task instead of using the web browser control. This would provide a better and consistent user experience and make Facebook integration available to XNA games.

I think a universal dock connector is crucial – especially if the idea of bringing out a phone-less new media player based on the new OS is carried out. How are there are going to be any accessories for the platform when you can’t plug all of the devices in from the bottom? If you want people to get excited about the platform they need to be able to USE the devices and see that the platform is instantly mature. The same problem plagued the Zune and that same thing can happen all over again.

– PODCAST/VIDEO playback: On the iPhone, I can watch video and then lock the phone and either click the play button on my headphones cord or double tap the home button to pull up the ipod controls to play the video’s AUDIO without the VIDEO. There’s no way to do this on WP7 unfortunately. I used this daily on the iPhone but I’m a hard core podcast listener/watcher. Also, there needs to be a way to lock the buttons because I accidentally hit the search, home and back buttons ALL THE TIME while holding the phone and watching video. ~caps are for emphasis not yelling :)

– ALARMS: iPhone Alarm app has “Timers” which I used ALL the time as well as “Stopwatch”. They definitely need to add Timers – this is sooooo useful for quick alarms that don’t repeat like when you are cooking, doing laundry, etc. doesn’t warrant a full out alarm but you need to do something 30 minutes from now and need a reminder. Would be nice for the normal alarms to also have the ability for “every other Monday” or more options like the Outlook calendar has for recurring appointments but I’ll settle for simple Timers first! :P

Great list. And while I agree completely that the copy and paste and multitasking are the big things they need to fix on a PR front, they would not be on the top of my list of things to add/change. After having my phone for over 2 weeks, I think I’ve really wanted copy and paste once so far. Multitasking has become mostly a buzz word. People want it even though most don’t really know why. There are very few apps that actually benefit from it. The rest just suck battery life. WP7’s back button and tombstoning take care of most of the use cases. It’s mainly needed for apps that might play music or track GPS or something in the background.

Here’s the other things I’d add to the list:

Marketplace needs some serious fixes. Specifically in the area of searching. Be able to search apps only, or music only, etc. Even better to search a specific category of apps.

Office syncing of docs on SkyDrive other than just OneNote.

Upgrade Internet Explorer on the phone. My understanding is that it’s based on IE7. Not sure how true that is, but it seems to be lagging behind mobile Safari in a lot of areas. Can’t complain about its speed though.

Not so much a “fix”, but I’d like the ability to create my own hub or possibly another start page. Mine is getting a bit long. It would be nice to have one place for all my business type apps, and another for social apps, or whatever.

Not really sure about the Copy/Paste. Yes it would be cool to have but I think custom ringtones would be more beneficial, especially for an Enterprise phone. I just found that on droid the cut/Copy/Paste was so hit and miss I just never used it. The ringtones though, when I am oncall I worry that the ringtones are just not diverse and loud enough to wake me in the middle of the night.

– You cannot sort by highest rated so quality apps/games don’t bubble to the top.
– You can’t tell if an app/game has a free trial unless you look at its details.
– App developers should have some way of giving away free copies of their app/game so that it can be reviewed by online magazines etc.
– When using the Zune software to look for games, it goes to the Xbox Live category by default. If you switch away from this, and go to the details of any game and then hit the back button it reverts to just Xbox Live games again. Non-Xbox Live game devs are at an incredibly severe disadvantage.
– Many times I get errors when trying to download trials or even worse, buy apps/games.
– You should be able to select to download or buy from marketplace using a web based interface. This is available for Xbox, and allows for better deep linking to an app/game since it doesn’t have to launch the Zune software.
– The price levels you can choose are oddly spaced, there is a big jump from $1.29 to $1.99
– Updates get “stuck” and I have to uninstall the app to get the update.
– Rankings seem to get stuck for days at a time which can be critical when you first release an app

In the agenda view of the calendar app, include the day of the week! When scrolling through the next few days’ agenda, it is easy to get lost; at least seeing “Monday”, “Tuesday” in front of the date would help.

Add tagging and tag search in OneNote Mobile. This is a great way of doing to-do lists on the desktop, and would naturally extend to WP7 with SkyDrive sync, but for the want of this really simple functionality.

Extend SkyDrive to file types other than OneNote.

Solve the “oops, I hit the search button by mistake, now when I hit back, my app has to load from scratch” problem. Full-on multitasking would solve this, but is not necessary – it would be enough to keep an app resident for, say, 30 seconds after you go somewhere else, allowing it to resume quickly if you leave and return quickly.

I’d also add the ability to access data from Microsoft MyPhone, for people who used that with older Windows Mobile devices, so we can access stuff up there and transfer it to the new Windows Phone Live site (ESPECIALLY Text Messages) and allow backup of Text Messages.

Oh and as something to add when you’re all done with the big stuff, screenshots :P

Totally second Andrew Tech Help’s suggestion regarding MyPhone back-ups – it was such a handy utility on the WinMo 6.x platform… It took me many hours to get my stuff onto my new WP7, and so integration between WinMo 6.x and WP7 via the MyPhone service/website should’ve been provided as a minimum.

You can actually do that already (store your content where you please) via the Zune Software. I have a folder named XXXXX that is stored on a second HDD in my computer. Within XXXXX I have four more folders — one for podcast, music, videos, and pictures.

However, the Zune software automatically clone what you setup in it to documents, pictures, and music folder on your computer. Very wierd.

Mass-storage mode for getting files on and off the device (at least for pictures and videos, like the iPhone does). Data for 3rd party apps should also be accessible this way.

The only acceptable alternative to a proper mass-storage implementation would be if Microsoft offered Windows Live Sync integration. Think about it: what if you could have a “My Phone” folder on your PC, and everything user-accessible on your phone magically appeared in the folder, and vice-versa? Awesome. Game-changing. They should do it.

It’s really a Zune problem, but lose the “Heart/Broken-heart” rating system. This is one thing (of several) that keeps me from using Zune (or a device tied to the Zune service). All other music management software, including Windows itself, uses a 5-star rating system… why does Zune need to differentiate in this way?

Obviously, the biggest thing is multitasking. My Palm Pre can speak turn-by-turn directions to me while I’m streaming Pandora and sending a text message. It doesn’t need to be quite THAT good; I’m fine with fake, iPhone-style multitasking “services”, but there needs to be SOMETHING here before I move to WP7.

For most of this stuff, they really can’t afford to wait a whole year. My hope is that they have fake-multitasking and a few other features ready in time to launch on Sprint (and Verizon) in the spring. If Microsoft doesn’t come up with a major revision after 6 months on the market, and really address most of these issues (bringing them more inline with what Android and iPhone are doing), I will be very disappointed.

Multitasking isn’t a big deal for me. The back button works well. I wish more 3rd party apps would support tombstoning. Here’s my list (in addition to the stuff you’ve already pointed out):

1. I would like to see more support for live tiles. The WeatherBug app is awesome. I would love to see more such “glance and go” apps. This is more of a 3rd party thing, I know.
2. Mobile IE needs a few performance fixes. Also, it needs soft keys for back, reload, etc. I don’t like using the hardware back keys as an IE back button.
5. SkyDrive and Facebook (docs.com) integration in the Office hub.

I really like my LG Optimus 7 and I actually don’t miss the the “obvious” missings, such as copy&paste and so on. But there’s a rather big sum of little things which should be fixed ASAP. In the German version of Bing there’s no local search, neither there is in the maps app. I don’t know how to put my phone in TOTAL silent mode, which also overrides the audio settings for games and so on. I want to be able to sort the applications as I want to in the apps list. The marketplace app is laggy and crashes from time to time. For Germany there is no public transportation app as there is for any other device, even the Pre and dumpphones. The optimus 7’s camera is bad in lowlight settings such as in a bar. With flash the pics are to bright, without they’re blurry. I guess you can fix that by adjusting the flash/camera timing. An email hub would be nice, combining all email accounts.

Beside all that, I believe in this platform and if they don’t stop iterating this will become really good. But we need developers, developers, developers to make more apps, apps, apps!

I need to see the Samsung memory thing fixed. I don’t actually care whether the fix is to deal with reliability of the cards, or a larger-base-memory version of the phone (which may turn out to be the better way to go). Microsoft/Samsung choice, not mine. I can’t think about jumping ship (from AT&T/iPhone4) until then. I can only lust.

I would buy a Zune with “phoneless Windows Phone 7″ essentially immediately after it were to appear. (But that would likely put off any thoughts of buying one of the phones while it still costs full boat to switch from AT&T iPhone 4 to AT&T Windows Phone 7.

I can’t disagree with any of your points. (CDMA isn’t a need for me–it is for some.)

They could fix winphone7 by putting in accessibility for blind, vision impaired, and other people with disabilities. Currently Apple has everyone beat with its myriad of accessibility options including voiceover and zoom. Android’s accessibility is half baked and poorly implemented. Microsoft should build a screen reader into there product and test it by engaging the blind community and seeking feedback. Braille support could also be added at a later date. Basic accessibility would go a long way towards fixing there reputation in the disabled community imho.

I think Microsoft should build future WP7 devices themselves. This would allow them tighter control of the OS and the update schedule. I would have to say the product launch was a flop. Had Microsoft owned the devices the launch probably would have been more well received. Additionally, they could recognize all profits from the devices. I say follow Apples lead here. I really admire the WP7 and I am surprised how tight it is for a v1 release. I am a little disappointed with the hardware. It seems manufacturers stuck with the minimum requirements and did nit venture to deliver anything above and beyond.

Podcasts: Dim the names of the podcasts already played as with the Zune, or simplify the indication of new episodes that are available. The way it is implemented now, I have to read the small text: 3 episodes, 0 new. Make it simple like the mail live tiles. I wouldn’t want to have to read on the mail live tile: 15 emails, 3 new.

Add a screen to the left of the tiles screen that has recently launch apps. This will serve as a launching platform for those apps that are not important enough to be on the main tiles page, but more important than the other 50 items that I have to scroll through on the apps list page.

ToDo List: this has been a topic/issue for sometime. There is no API for accessing that collection oddly enough.
Music: Since I use an auto-playlist created in the Zune software, one of the settings is to randomize the order of the tracks. As to how frequently it updates that order seems inconsistent but in general if you synch your zune it usually re-orders the playlist in my experience.

How about support for other networks such as Verizon Wireless. A Windows Phone isn’t even on option for many of us in the Mid West, just as the iPhone before it because it is only available on ATT. I have been waiting 4 years for an iPhone, would really like a Windows Phone now instead, but I am done waiting. This needs to happen soon, or I am going to Android.

I agree with you on OneNote tags (see my comment above). But if it’s to be done, do it properly! Allow me to define my own tags, and do a search for tagged elements over all documents, like in the desktop version.

Contact’s birthdays is an interesting item. Again this is something that seems to have been an awkward part of Windows Live calendaring since it builds a seperate calendar and the multiple calendars has been a problem/annoyance with several products such as Windows Live Mail and even the Outlook Connector long before Windows Phone.

Here are a few items I want to see MS add; support for subscribed calendar’s, pause the music when headphones are pulled out, expand Marketplace to support O-T-A downloading of podcasts, update the FB app (since MS wrote it), expand color palette for theme’s.

The Marketplace is showing Microsoft Corporation as the publisher of the Facebook app, just as it does for the YouTube and Last.fm applications. I also interpreted that to mean that Microsoft was responsible for the development of those apps.

FB app was just updated but I don’t believe MS wrote it. The automatic pause when you remove a wired headset already works, at least I have seen that with the Samsung OEM as well as some skull candy headsets. The calendar is an issue and has been consistent even with MS products like Windows Live Essentials so I don’t believe it is a Windows Phone thing. Much like no API for the tasks entity that is part of Windows Live Calendar (which would be very handy on the Phone platform) are more Windows Live oriented versus the Phone platform.

For me there are some different things that need to be added before I would switch to WP7:

Better Bing services in Europe (no local search yet! no businesses shown on the map)

integrated turn-by-turn navigation from Bing

unified search for apps, people, content, search inside 3rd party apps not only with voice but also text input

week view in calendar (!)

better default font for IE (please kill Arial and use Segoe instead)

fast app switching (display a list of recent apps by holding down the Back button for 2 seconds)

alphabetical filtering and instant search for the apps list (like it is done for contacts)

auto-update for apps

more content for the Zune service in other countries (TV shows, Zune Pass …)

ability to pin system controls to the Start screen. (in system settings long tap on display brightness and choose “Pin to Start” to create a tile where you can toggle between different setting. Would be usefull for some controls like Bluetooth and WiFi).

Mail app: needs support for threaded conversations ala Gmail. Also needs support for push IMAP. Currently have to wait 15 minutes for every sync.

Zune app: needs full support for playlist management on the phone and allow for playlist streaming instead of forcing you to download every track. In a nutshell, copy Rhapsody’s feature set. You are -never- forced to use your PC for anything.

Apps list view: fix this view by at least copying the quick letter short cuts model used in the contacts list view. I am also not opposed to some sort of grid view.

Market place: fix the search.. If you want apps you should be able to only search for apps. Likewise for all other content.

Fix the install process for apps. For example, after installing an app I should have the option to open it immediately rather than having to exit out to the main screen the looking for it in the apps list.

Calendar: add a week view. Also the calendar tile could show more than one appointment. In addition if there are no appointments for the current day the tile should show the next future appointment instead being empty.

I’m not sure if this falls under your EAS policies, but there seems to be lacking functionality with Exchange in some of the functionality such as Out of Office Assistant where Windows Mobile 6.x has that–comes in handy when you’re on the road and realize you didn’t set this up from your desktop.

I also miss the Peek/Off-Peak scheduling for EAS that’s in Windows Mobile, but that’s lower on my list.

Without a hack I’d like to be able to load our corporate apps without having to go through the public MarketPlace. I’m fine with having the apps vetted if that sort of control is necessary, but the current arrangement seems clunky if this platform is to be adopted into the corporate world, and we badly want to do that.

Okay, this isn’t a minor fix, just a comment based on frustration. The Office Hub is great, but again the it’s like a tease with the SharePoint 2010 feature. Who does this serve in the corporate world, let alone the consumer world? What I mean is that SharePoint 2010 is probably Microsoft’s business solutions furthest behind in adoption in the corporate world (it’s a hunch anyway). It appears that this will ONLY work with SharePoint 2010, not MOSS or even SharePoint Foundation. Without having to build our own SharePoint 2010 server, we’re just trying to see this portion of the hub in action. What our users want in terms of a platform upgrade (WinMo 6.1) besides all the new bells and whistles is access to corporate data, and SharePoint is a perfect avenue for that.

We have 4 Focus devices; two replaced an iPhone and an Android. Those users now prefer Windows Phone. We can also attest to the better phone performance over the iPhone.

my biggest needs are audiobook support and podcast/audiobook playlists

and faster playback of audiobooks and podcasts would be nice i miss that feature of my iphone.

this is not wp7 specific but relevant. zune pass needs to be for a family not just one person. i can not justify two zune passes for my wife and i but would happly get it if it was for both of us. and the 10 songs you keep part of the zune pass needs to have the option of buying a whole album instead

Here is my biggest issue, if nothing else I want this at the very least: Make it so I can flip the phone upside down while keeping it in portrait mode so that the search and back buttons are at the top instead. I AM SICK of backing out of apps accidentally!

Adjust the brightness of the flash for the camera, it is way too bright now.

In some apps I am unable to view the signal or battery strength icons, this makes sense in games, but it doesn’t make sense when it doesn’t show in the hubs like people and pictures.

Make an option to have the start screen tiles be either single or double wide. At the very least allow the option for microsoft’s default ones. I want to see the subject of my newest email. I do not need use the calendar so much so i don’t need to see my next upcoming appointment which is a month away. (But do want to see the current date!)

Make the “live” tiles more live! I read that the xbox avatar does things in the tile, but then I got it and realized it is the same thing over and over… a bit boring and possibly annoying after a while.

Okay I love these tile things so much of my suggestions revolve around it, so here is another one: Let me pick which artist to use as the background for the music tile. Or else change it more often, it seems to stay the same for a week before it changes again.

Phone app: when using the dial pad your contacts should be searched on the fly for suggestions. This is a super useful way to search for contacts.. This is standard on blackberries and I believe all Android phones.

Allow you to pin -one- touch dialing tiles where you don’t have to drill into a contact’s record first then dial.

Notifications: The current “toast” notification is great but once it goes away there is no way to get it back. Something like Android’s drop down shade that available system wide would be great – wishful thinking?

Should support Zune’s “channels” (Zune HD does…not sure why it was dropped from WP7)

Mobile hotspot (connect your laptop to internet via your phone)

Any “doublewide” tiles should have a standard size option and vice versa (let me decide which tiles are important/get more screen real estate)

Xbox tile should update with your achievements and last played games instead of your avatar randomly popping up.

Photo tile/background should have option to change periodically to a randomly selected favorite photo

Having you finger over the proximity sensor should *not* keep the camera button from turning on the camera.

The volume for headphones and the volume for no headphones should not be shared.

If there is a login screen in order to use WiFi…
1. Instead of an app complaining there is no internet connection, the login screen should be shown and then return you to your app once you have an internet connection.
2. The next time you connect to that WiFi network, the login screen should be handled automatically and transparently

“Having you finger over the proximity sensor should *not* keep the camera button from turning on the camera.”

This is so you don’t take a picture from inside your pocket. If you can figure out a way to allow photos from the lock screen while also preventing it from kicking on in your pocket then by all means, sure.

I would figure that holding the camera button for longer than a second would be enough to to keep it from turning on in your pocket.

With the Focus, it is quite easy to hold the phone to take a picture while covering the proximity sensor. Until I learned what was happening, I assumed WP7 was flakey because I couldn’t consistently use the camera button to take pictures.

Just allowing a button to be held down for X amount of time isn’t enough. If it were there wouldn’t be any need for a lock screen in the first place.

But, I do agree with you with the focus it’s fairy easy to block the sensor even though I’m aware of its effect. I think Microsoft could tune it a bit so there aren’t as many false positives for proximity.

1. I have a love hate thing with capacitive buttons. Give me the option to select single or double tapping.

2. Illuminate the capacitive buttons when the screen is illuminated.

3. Allow the user to depress the lock button to answer a ringing phone otherwise I can’t answer the phone if I am wearing a pair of gloves.

4. The automatic phone locking works well but allow me to remain unlocked while on my home WiFi network. If I walk out the door, lock the phone. I realize this might present issues with ActiveSync policies but I still love the idea!

7. Allow option to disable Live account contacts, email, calendar or allow a separate Live account for the market place. My wife has the same phone. I want to share apps which is allowed under the licensing but I don’t want to share email and contacts.

11. Integrate Skype at a core level. Partner with Skype or any other VOIP provider that wants to allow such core integration. Implement a licensing fee that will restrict interest to the core providers: Skype, Google Voice etc.

12. When a network requires additional authentication, ignore the connection so all of my services don’t fail. Currently the phone attempt to use my WiFi even if it requires a web based authentication response. My Blackberry was aware of this so figure out how to make it work.

13. Allow for a third column of smaller live tiles. Allow them to rotate when the phone is in landscape mode.

14. Display the apps list in a wide format when in landscape. Show details such as version, last used and available updates.

15. Let me allow access to certain apps while the phone is locked. I want my 4 year old to be able to play games but I don’t want him to have access to corporate email.

16. Move the Zune interface to the cloud. I want to select my pod casts via the web. Let the phone directly download these. In fact, do the same with my HTPC and share the settings between them.

17. Make DLNA a core function.

Bottom line, Widows Phone is a great start. I love it and hope it does well! In the end it will all be about how quickly Microsoft iterates. Any time Microsoft wants to hire me as a PM over some of these, I will consider it.

While I don’t have a Windows Phone (I would love one, though), I follow it pretty closely, and the name has always been baffling. Windows Phone 7 Series? Then to Windows Phone 7, which still sounds weird. I know on Windows Weekly you say it’s not a Windows Phone 7 phone, but it just sounds funny without it. With iPhone, I would say “I have an iPhone” which sounds fine, and “I have an Android phone” then there is “I have a Windows Phone 7″ the added 7 just sounds weird. Maybe that’s just me.

I have no phone name ideas other than what you suggested, Zune OS for the operating system itself, then call Windows Phone 7 Zune Phone or *something*, after all, WP7 was inspired by the Zune HD, was it not? Why shouldn’t the Zune legacy live on! Let people realize that the phone they are using was inspired by the media device everybody (almost everybody) laughed at!

I really wonder how long Microsoft’s naming get-togethers last. Do they send out an email and just give suggestions? That’s what it seems like. Microsoft needs to realize the name of the product matters a lot, a lot more than they seem to think.

Look at Small Business Server’s name! Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials — I get everything except ‘Essentials,’ that makes me think there are going to have different versions of SBS 2011. Did they think Essentials sounded good just because Windows Live uses it? It works for Windows Live because Windows Live is the name of the service and the ‘Essentials’ part is the suite of software as in they are essential to using the service.

I’d really like to see some sort of browser chrome in Internet Explorer. As it is, you can go back using the hardware button, but not forward, and if you’ve just come into the browser from the front page, pressing back will take you there, and you can’t access that browser history.

My main other gripe is the super-sensitive search button on the Omnia 7, but that’s a hardware issue anyway.

There NEEDS to be a way to sync with Outlook. I’ve been using it as a PIM for years, as I am reluctant to put all my contacts and calendar on the cloud. Especially when these could based services seemed to get hacked so frequently.

I still sync with outlook because I do not want to connect my phone to corporate exchange server that requires a bunch of security stuff installed on the phone. Without this feature I am stuck with my iPhone. I was planning to buy a new phone and wanted a Windows Phone 7. But it looks like I will be getting an iPhone 4 for one more time. I will be eligible for upgrade in February 2011 and at that time if iPhone comes to Verizon and they fix simultaneous voice and data issue, I may jump.

The OS itself is very good. But not good enough when you are late to the market. Taking away features already existed in Windows Mobile is not going to gain who owns Windows Mobile. Not having features of the competitor won’t get their customers as well. Just like how Mac and Linux find it hard to gain over Windows.

Alarms app: Add a simple countdown timer. (An app using push notifications for this might not be “alarming” enough.)

Alarms app: When editing an alarm name, the back button should only dismiss the SIP keyboard instead of cancel everything you just changed! (Seems like a subtle bug that violates a UI guideline.)

Notifications: Provide a way to access recent “toast” push notifications. (If you miss one, or dismiss it with a swipe, it’s gone forever.)

Settings app: Independent volume setting for ringer. (The sound level I use for games/music/video is never as loud as my preferred ringer level.) Not sure what level notifications should use. Maybe ringer level when locked and app level when in use.

Settings app: Option to ring with sound when charging (since the phone isn’t likely in my pocket or hand) and switch to vibrate-only when not charging.

About the MicroSD slo i think MS need to make it a minimum requirement for all devices! I mean its the 2010! I didn’t buy an Omnia 7 because here only have 8GB witch is not enough for me and i really don’t like the Optimus 7.
HTC confuses me a lot because all of the devices have MicroSD slots but are not accessible to the user! Come on…

After using WP7 for a few weeks, there are other things I would like to see and one could be implemented without changing code:

When approving apps, make sure all of them properly tombstone when switching back and forth. (This includes apps by MS like the camera app)

Fix whatever bug is causing Marketplace and Xbox Live from crashing frequently forcing a reboot of the phone.

Direct access to the camera for developers. Have you tried MS Tag? It worked great on WinMo, but swapping out to the camera app to take a picture of a tag doesn’t work well. I have the same problem with barcode reading apps. Back and forth, back and forth when it should just be turn on the camera and hold it till it reads the code.

Third party multi-tasking. I would like to see this but in limited doses. GPS app and other music services.

Faster way to switch between apps. I think press and hold the back arrow should bring up the list of apps without going through the start menu and they should be sorted by recent usage. Swipe to see the normal list in alphabetical order.

Implement the same alphabet filter in apps that we have in contacts. Tap the A then jump to the letter of the app you want. My list of apps is growing and it takes a few swipes to get to the end of the list.

Actually what I would do is give it to apple to finish off. Not because I like apple, but because Microsoft, with the storage card fiasco, update backpedal, lack of focus in releasing a product with such obvious missing features as to gift every MS-hating blogger a Thanksgiving/Xmas/birthday present all in one, and the lack of integration with skydrive, and the recent hubbub with Windows Home Server (which I use) has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt they do not know how to create, market and maintain a consumer product. Left with MS they will inevitably screw WP7 up, probably reducing the restrictions of OEM and carrier customisation when they deem it has sufficient market penetration and thereby ruining the experience completely. WP7 is not the typical MS product and they have shown when they do have a standout product they invariably end up turning it from a great product into an also ran.

Apart from that, fix the obvious missing features ASAP, as in yesterday. Waiting till 2011 just gives the haters that much more time to sow the negative seeds against WP7. Then go on to add TRUE integration with the MS ecosystem, including the desktop, live services, Windows Media Center and cross-platform gameplay. The latter should be a snap for MS themselves to produce since the Xbox and WP7 are both MS products. And dont forget stupid bugs like camera settings not being saved, how did that pass all the so-called testing they did?

If MS cant move quickly on this, they really dont deserve to be in the smartphone space, period.

GENERAL:
* Automatic reboot of the phone
* Automatic reboot of the phone and loss of all data
* Pictures assigned to Live Tiles (people, pictures, etc) are very low resolution pictures
* Samely, very low resolution picture showing on the screen when a contact calls you
* Camera settings are not saved
* Email notifications sound laggy/distorded
* Alarms: Freezes when recurring alarm sounds and allowed to self quiet, when not plugged in. Does it everytime. Sometimes locks on dismiss screen, otherwise locks when dismissed
* Alarms: Phone may freeze on the passcode unlock screen when you dismiss the alarm (reboot necessary)
* Alarms: If the earphones are plugged then alarm will not ring (alarm not reverted to speaker)
* Game Hub: in the Game Hub most icons are zoomed in and pixelated (concerns mainly non-Xbox live games)
* Definitely some annoying background hiss noise (right before a sound is played, which goes away shortly after that)
* WP7 media player: Media Player does not allow user to skip to the part of the video he wants to watch by sliding finger along the time bar until he reaches the target moment. User is forced to press a seek button instead
* Text: sometimes WP7 will capitalize the first letter of some words without any specific reason
* Weird icon appearing in the app list. See image: http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5507/iconvbx.png
* When charging, the phone refuses to switch off http://social.answers.microsoft.com/…c-e34b6e726317
* Sound of Games will remain enabled even when phone is on Vibrate
* Camera-shutter sound will remain enabled even when phone is on vibrate
* Microphone may disable itself after use of bluetooth or plugging in headphones

CONNECTIVITY:
* Wifi: WP7 apparently unable to connect to password protected WiFi (WPA/WPA2 security)
* Wifi: WP7 unable to connect to hidden WiFi networks (known issue)
* Wifi: Issue with lockscreen: Wifi refuses to re-connect after it comes back from standby
* Bluetooth: Bluetooth works on Audio but fails on video (sound reverts to the speakers)
* Bluetooth: Apparently Bluetooth not connecting well with all car systems
* Bluetooth: Very poor audio-quality when connecting the phone to various A2DP-capable devices

SYNC / EMAILS / PEOPLE / CALENDAR
* Sync: Exchange ActiveSync Error Code: 85010013 Security Policies
* Sync: Error code 86000206 when synchronizing to Hotmail account
* Sync: WP7’s calendar refuses to push to Google calendar
* Sync: Having a calendar entry (Google), change in reminder (add a reminder, change time etc) does not sync with the phone.
Only if you change something like description of that item, then everything will be sync’, including reminder info.
* Sync: Issue when sync’ing all calendar items from Windows Live Custom domains account. After copying the appointements from Outlook to WL calendar using the Connector, the non-recurring appointements appear in the web calendar BUT do not show up on the phone (recurring appts show up fine).
* Sync: Some Facebook contacts are missing from People’s Hub
* Sync: Deleted people in Facebook still appear in the People Live Tile
* Sync: Hidden posts in Facebook still appear in the WP7 Facebook feed
* YouTube videos embedded in Facebook cannot be played
* Sync: Office documents in Skydrive are not accessible from the WP7 device (absence of any integration in the WP7 Office Hub)
* Emails: bug in how WP7 connects with Exchange Server 2003 (which includes the service behind the Hotmail Exchange Activesync support). When email from such a server is forwarded the email is not included in an editable form, but rather as an .eml attachment
* Emails: Emails menu tends to start in ‘landscape mode’ by default (may be actually on purpose, any users find this annoying):
E.g. If the user takes the phone in his hand in portrait mode as the main tiled interface shows, and opens the messages or mail app, the content is in the landscape mode. User has to tilt the phone 45 degrees and wait for it to correctly switch to portrait.
* Emails: Emails will not display included images (email clients’ fault?)
* Emails: No way to save a picture included in an email (if the pic is included and not attached)
* Emails: Videos (even short ones) cannot be sent via Email
* Emails: Incorrect processing of Mailto URLs http://forum.xda-developers.com/show…5&postcount=57
* Emails: WP7 refuses to let you edit the content of an Email before you forward it.
* Emails: when a picture is attached. click on “download images” will come back “download incomplete”, with no way to force the email to re-download (forward the email to urself may solve the issue)

ZUNE:
* Zune crashes, then refuses to load (reboot necessary)
* Zune remains silent, even if the general volume is turned on (reboot necessary)
* Zune does not always display the artist as background (which remains black)
* [Also: sometimes, Zune displays the Artist background when navigating through the Artist’s albums and songs, but does not display any background when listening a song of this Artist]
* Sometimes Zune’s background displays the artist of the preceding song /or the next song
* Zune software messes up many Artists’ tags, by mistakenly replacing the Artist name by the composer name (e.g. Smog becomes Bill Callahan, Moose becomes Russel Yates, My Bloody Valentine becomes Kevins Shields, etc.)
* Apparently no avi Xvid support
* Zune takes hours and hours to convert some movies files
* The volume of Zune may vary (e.g. louder after receiving a phone call, or after a game)
* Zune sound quality: strangely there is always some background hiss noise
* No sound while Zune player is running, other sounds still working (reboot solves the problem)
* Turn off the sound of certain games may possibly also turn off the sound in Zune [to be confirmed. (e.g. RocketRiot, Bye Bye Brain, Bejeweled may cause this)]
* Volume missing feature: no separate volume control: Turn Zune’s volume up will also turn up the general volume (ringtone, messaging alerts, keyboard sound)
* All letters are “greyed out” in the Zune alphabetic search menu [may concern mostly German devices]

MARKETPLACE
* WP7 freezes during Maketplace scrolling
* Marketplace crashes, then refuses to load (reboot necessary)
* In the Marketplace menu, pushing the ‘back’ button only leads to a black screen
* App updates failing to download/install
* Update of some specific apps failing due to “licensing problems” (IMDB, foursquare, Touchnote, Wipolo, some HTC apps)
* Error Code c101a24b when downloading/updating apps
* Game downloading issue – “Attention required”. Some install issues encountered [to be confirmed]
* When you browse the application list, check one app then go back, often it will bring you back to the very top of the list
* Marketplace Search: on the Marketplace Bing cannot filter between apps and music etc. If you search for an app, Bing will display a bunch of other stuffs like album, artist, song etc.

BING/BING MAPS:
* Bing Maps not working properly in several non-US contries
* Vocal and local search not available in most European countries (missing feature)
* Absence of Bing Images, strangely left out (missing feature)

PODCASTS:
* WP7 refuses to play most m4a podcasts (despite m4a is in the list of Windows Phone supported media codecs) [may apparently be caused by images embedded in some m4a podcasts – same problem encountered on the Zune HD]
* Zune does not allow to add or update podcasts directly from the phone (!)
* Poor audio quality for podcasts streamed under 3G coverage/no Wifi: audio interrupted every 10 seconds (buffering defect?)

GPS:
* Localization without GPS not working fine on 3G networks (apparently works better under 2G coverage)

VOICE COMMAND:
* Once the audio jack is unplugged the Voice Command may not work (reboot necessary) [mostly noticed on the Focus]

All points are good but I am more interested in HOW they implement the above feature. For example if they find a nice innovative way to implement multi-tasking that would be killer.

As for more features here is my list:
1. When I am in a contact it shows me “What’s New”. I think there could be another swipe right for “Recent Communication” which will list all my recent communication with the person. All email, text, phone etc. with me and that contact.

2. Turn By Turn navigation.

3. Kinect Web Cam. This will compete with Face time. However I don’t think this will be implemented till next year as it requires front facing camera.

Have you ever tried to remove the first Live ID you added to the phone without resetting the entire phone storage? You can’t.
Have you ever tried to select your primary address book to use for new contacts you add on the phone or import from your SIM card? You can’t, it’s either your primary Live ID or nothing. Only after adding it to Windows Live where it’s gonna mess up your Messenger contact list you can add it to “Outlook” (Exchange). Storing contacts on the SIM card isn’t possible either. Neither is storing a contact only in one place.
Have you ever tried to make a backup of your application settings? (the local storage thing in the API) You can’t.
Have you ever wondered what happens to number strings in text messages and emails? The phone thinks every large number is a damn phone number. Oh, wait, no it doesn’t actual phone numbers in popular national and international notation schmemes remain plain text.
Have you tried connecting to a WPA2 protected wireless network with a 63-character passphrase? Doesn’t work, says the password is wrong… not to mention that it’s extremely tedious to type that in.
There is no programmatic direct access to the radio devices, the USB port or to run programs in the background/as a service.
There is no way to check how much space an app or game uses on the phone.

Smart Dialer- Like the one on WM6.5 devices. One that pulls from contacts by best alpha and numeric matches, and recent and missed call matches.

Tasks/To do list- Have it sync with live calender, gmail tasks and Outlook

Live Tile Options- have the ability to choose a double wide missed call tile, text message tile and email tile that shows more than just a count. Actually shows missed call info, latest message received preview text, latest email received preview text.
Maybe even a double wide weather tile that switches between current and 5 day forecast, and an RSS tile, etc….there area a lot of options with wider tiles like the calender and pictures tiles.

I like the suggestions mentioned so far. These are the features I would like to see added in the near future:

Xbox Live – add true online multiplayer gaming (voice-chat?).

Zune: Bring Zune player to parity with ZuneHD (add support for channels, audiobooks, SmartDJ, artist photos).

Zune: Synchronize podcast play status to cloud and enable podcasts to be updated when away from Zune software. Enable users to rate and review podcasts from phone and Zune software.

Marketplace: Filter searches by type (searching in Apps does not display music, etc.)

Marketplace: Lock application screenshots in place.

Voice: Add support for voice dictation.

Maps: Turn-by-turn GPS w/ voice prompts.

Enterprise: Add VPN client.

Camera app: Overlay additional camera features on-screen rather than hidden beneath the elipses menu – specifically flash, white balance, and metering. As great as the instant-camera on feature is, it is still too tedious to take a photo with anything other than full-auto mode.

Gaming/Full-screen apps: Add option to disable search button and require long press on back/Windows button when in full screen games and/or apps to prevent accidently exiting (capacitive buttons especially).

It would be nice if the alarms app had more options. My previous feature phone (a Sony Ericsson) had three times as many options. The big ones that I really miss are the ability to change the snooze time and the setting to have the alarm go off even if the phone volume is turned down or on silent. I have already missed my alarm too many times because the phone was on vibrate.

Is there a drafts folder for text messages? I have accidentally hit the home button instead of the send button and lose entire messages. It would be nice if the message just stayed there even if you navigated away from the message screen.

It would also be nice to have IM programs for AIM and WLM. There is one for Facebook IM, but the biggest problem is that it logs out if you navigate away from it or if the screen locks. I am guessing the same would happen for AIM and WLM.

I have a host of things in addition to the ones you mentioned above that I think MS take care of as quickly as possible.
1) Percentage battery indicator
2) Visual Voicemail (my #1 issue)
3) A way to turn on and off Windows Live account contact and calendar.
4) They have to optimize the Marketplace — it takes way too long to load the apps in the Marketplace
5) An option to use MS points to buy apps.
6) A better way of signing into Marketplace. Using Windows live ID doesn’t allows work instantly.
7) An off option for integrate Facebook contacts – NO import.
8) A better way of switching between silent and vibrate mode.
9) Fix volume issue. There is an issue with the volume on the Focus when using headphones (volume drops very low).
10) Gapless playback in the music player
11) Remember what pivot (playlist, album, artist,…) I last used and store it, so when I re-launch the zune player I’m right back where I was previously.
12) Option to send multiple pictures and/or video via MMS

Seems like everyone’s already hit on the main points, but I have two others.

The sounds/notification system needs to be overhauled. There should be separate volume and vibration controls for rings, each type of message notification, and system sounds. There should also be a list of recent notifications somewhere available. Maybe something you can swipe from the top with the status bar.

SharePoint needs to have authentication fixed, as has been mentioned, but it also has to support more list types. Shared Calendars should open up in the regular calendar view, shared contacts should link into your search options with the Exchange GAL, and shared tasks would have to integrate into whatever overall task application Microsoft comes up with.

There are some great ideas in here. I’m thankful that it’s nearly free of negative rudeness too.

Here are a few that I don’t think have been brought up yet.

1) Granular control of brightness – Sometimes I use the phone in bed and don’t want to blind my wife.
2) So far I think the camera takes great still pictures and movies. That said, I’d like to be able to shoot better pictures of my toddler who nearly never sits still.
3) Ability to forward SMS/MMS
4) Bring back the HD radio. I know AM is nearly dead, but with HD at least we get some of those stations back.
5) Ability to roll phone back to a ‘restore point’ similar to Windows 7.
6) Ability to send an email to a Contact Group

A bump to the items previously mentioned:
— Unified Inbox
— DNLA to WMC (As I have one connect to my
— Fully integrated Messenger app with ability to run in background
— Bing Maps with Turn by Turn – I miss you . . .
— Quick dialing from the dialpad – although I could get by with one of the speed dialing apps just fine.

-Copy/cut/paste/save: Improve the download and file management on the phone. For example, downloading and saving/uncompressing zip files.

-Fast app switching: Hopefully 3rd party multitasking would fix this, but hitting one of the capacitive buttons (Samsung Focus) and being knocked out of an app, only to have to reload the app again is less than ideal. Also, having the lock screen do the same thing when you’re a second too late to tap and keep the screen on is frustrating as well.

-Camera: Remembering camera settings is definitely a start, but if I’m quickly grabbing the phone out of my pocket to take a quick pic from an off state I don’t want to have to deal with fixing the last settings I was on, e.g., was it on video, a color overlay, macro setting, flash, etc. I would far rather be happy if the camera reset to your default every time, ignoring the last setting, but allowing you to change the defaults. That way, at least every time I go to video I can stay as 720p, but when I try for that quick pic, it doesn’t turn into a quick video of me swearing because it’s remembering i was taking a video on the previous day…

-Camera 2: Give 3rd parties access to the camera. Augmented reality and Video calling apps won’t be able to be created until 3rd parties are allowed to use the camera. I understand none of the WP7 phones have a front facing camera, but according the Microsoft that’s only because none of the OEMs put one there. As a less drastic but still handy addition; allowing 3rd parties to have access to the LED light would allow for a simple flash light app (if you didn’t know the brightest setting on the Samsung Focus’s LED light is insanely bright… perfect for that makeshift flashlight in a pinch, and yes yes, it would drain battery, thank you captain obvious.)

-Calendar: Week view. Simply add another pivot to “day” and “agenda”… ta da “week” view! While the calendar view shows when there are items on a day, the unreadable text, is truly unreadable and doesn’t represent what is actually happening, so even if the week view has to have very small text or abbreviated appointments, allow the view to a get a glance-able look at when we are free or busy for the week. It might work best in landscape mode, or possibly just use the day mode but instead of hours have the next 7 days available to view.

Also, I would like to see more robust integration with the calendar and 3rd parties. If I’m in a restaurant or movie theater app and I’m planning out a date, I would like to be able to have those events automatically and accurately add themselves to the Calendar. Furthermore, the calendar app should intelligently see if there are any conflicts and warn me about them.
As a further extreme I would like geo tag location built into appointments, so to be able to easily navigate to them when ready, and also to even give estimates if I will be late or on time to an appointment/meeting given current traffic conditions (last part sounds more like a separate app, but the integration has to be allowed in order for it to work)

-Enterprise: Remote desktop app built by Microsoft to be as quick and efficient as possible.

-Service Integration: Why stop at pictures? Add support for other social interactions in the people hub, e.g., twitter, Google buzz (ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a bit), even business circles. To keep it from being cluttered, you could have a combined view, or swipe to organized views, like family, friends, work, or individual services.

Also, Add support for real time IM into the message (or people) sections of the phone. Why should i have to even have a Messenger app or Gchat app, or Facebook app to do IM. If they were all pulled into the Messaging app and able to be organized with pivots, e.g., by service, by time, by contacts, etc., then I wouldn’t have to be navigating in and out of apps (especially since there isn’t 3rd party multitasking atm). I would suggest color coding (like the calendar app) would be a must so that conversations aren’t mixed.

-Cloud-based backup: Frankly, I would even just be happy with full client software based full back up for now. I’m on my 4th Samsung Focus, as all of them have had some defect (Interestingly each with a different problem, oh and this 4th which is by far the best of the quartet, has a subtle line running down the middle of the screen for light images…. %@&#$!). Well, for whatever reason I thought all my settings, apps, and everything I did on my phone was going to be saved in the Zune client. After my second phone I found out it only syncs pictures and videos, and then only uploads back apps you used the Zune Client to find in the first place. Furthermore if you try to add your apps through the Zune client the second time around, it gives an error that you have already purchased the app and won’t let you continue…. fantastic. Contacts are saved through the cloud, but for whatever reason I had the impression that if I was able to sign in with my Live ID on these new phones it would just automatically start recreating my phone as I last sync’d it. Apparently, we aren’t there yet, and I’m not sure why I thought that would happen, as I read every detail about these phones for the past year where information has been available on them. Hmm.

In any case, adding Kin like functionality would be wonderful. Also, although I’m not sure what they are referring to as I’ve never owned a Win 6.5 device, I hear that the Wp7 version of the live.com phone support isn’t as complete as what can be found for 6.5 devices today, so I assume adding the functionality would welcome as well.

Oh, and maybe I don’t know how to set it up, but I would also like to have seamless cloud syncing between Office files on my computer, the cloud, and my phone. I get the feeling it’s something you can set up ahead of time, but it would be nice if there was a way to access files even if they weren’t specifically saved in the cloud (obviously remote desktop app would help with this)

-Audio playback: Smart DJ. Bringing other missing functionality from the Zune HD would be nice as well, e.g., related artists for discovery, artist photos, and as unnecessary as it is, the animated play view (I would use the xbox version though, which is even better). Also DLNA streaming too. (see further down)

-Ringtones: Separate audio controls for music, ringtones and alarms. If I set a wake up alarm to always play at max volume, I want it to play at max volume always. Other things can be combined in the case of going to quiet events, such as office meetings, movies, weddings, etc. It would be annoying if you had to go remember to turn down ALL of your alarms and alerts whenever you needed it to be quiet. I can see why Microsoft didn’t want to make it too confusing. Again, hmm…

-Mail App: Threaded messages and multiple inboxes, but can be separated easily with a simple pivot swipe, similar to “All” “Unread” Flagged”, e.g., “All”, “Gmail Personal”, “Outlook work”, “Unread All” “Unread Gmail”, etc. Or allowing both combined and uncombined tiles. So if you just want to see everything that’s coming in, jump into combined mail. If you need to be more specific just check the “Work email” tile.

-People hub: Groups, Favorites not just recent, filtering especially when other services are allowed in. Allow other services to integrate.

-Storage expansion: Support it, but not at the cost of reliability or speed. If it turns out that the current concept will cause an issue, back track and just make it available for content and non-critical data, so that it won’t cause performance issues.

Ok, and that’s just piggy backing off of what has been said. There’s a lot to Windows Phone 7 that is full of “potential”, but if it’s never implemented in a way that works reliably and effectively, or just never is implemented at all, then it’s about as useful as a “picture of oxygen to a drowning man” (that quote is from a fairly good movie btw).

Here are some other things that have been viewed as “potentials” for WP7, as well as some of my own examples:

-Xbox Live: Real-time Xbox live games. These could be phone to phone, phone to Xbox, phone to PC, or whatever. Multiplayer is the most obvious example of this, but even the use as a companion device would be interesting for Xbox games. I remember people using iPhones and an iPad to play scrabble, which is rather garish but the idea could be expanded to give some interesting game play.

For example, you could use the touch screen of a WP7 device to quickly come up with plays for a Madden football game for an Xbox 360 game. Puzzle and adventure games could use a Wp7 device to solve interaction puzzle, which act as quick mini games or simple ways to interact that aren’t possible using a controller. A Wp7 device could be used as a secondary interface, like for inventory, secondary commands, or even as another way to communicate to other players, through touch. Even something as simple as a map that allows you to pinpoint where you are, without having to take up screen real estimate on an Xbox 360 game. For more casual games, you could use an Xbox just like the scrabble iPad idea, where your phone allows you to hide your cards, letters, etc and play them onto the bigger screen where the board is. There could be strategy games where you don’t want your opponent, who is playing next to you, to see what you’re planning, that could use the Wp7 device to move in troops, etc. Heck, the WP7 could be a complete secondary game for someone else while you play. While you’re being fired at in a FPS, you could have your buddy controlling drones and targeting bombing locations for new ways to play CO Op games.

Really, as long as it’s real time and open to customization almost anything can be done. The ultimate situation I see is using Wp7 devies with a Microsoft Surface computer, for real time war game play…. too bad those things are so rare. :/

Next is what they call BOPA, or Buy Once, Play Anywhere, but with games. BOPA games probably would cost a bit more than if you just bought the single version for either the Xbox, or a Wp7 device, but would allow you to play, pause and pick up a game between devices, or even on the web from a computer. If I’m playing a game of plants vs zombies on the Xbox, I should be able to pause from the game, pick up my Windows Phone and continue exactly where I left off. From there once I’ve had a nice subway ride and I arrive at work, I can open up the Xbox website and continue once again simply after signing in with my Xbox live account. Then after pretending to work for 8 hours, I can make the return trip and finally finish up the game at night back on my comfy couch and on my big screen TV. :) They’ve shown off this idea already, so hopefully that means they will eventually bring the concept to reality.

What’s great about this seamless interconnectivity is that it allows people to play with their friends and family regardless of what system of interaction they have at the moment. If you have a Wp7 phone, but your friend only has an Xbox, you can still play together. If one or both of you are away from your Xbox devices, but can get online, then you can still play together, and with BOPA, if you have to move away from the game, you don’t have to completely quit, you can just pick up exactly where you left off on your mobile device. It’s an incredibly powerful idea.

– Flash, Silverlight, and HTML 5: Flash and Silverlight are supposedly coming, but I don’t recall hearing anything about HTML5. Now hopefully, with IE9 being so quick and compliant they could bring that down to the phone, and I know that IE on the phone can be updated separately from the OS firmware, but how long would it take them to update it? A year? Less?More? It’s another case where Microsoft needs to move as fast as they can.

-DLNA: It’s nice and all the LG built in DLNA to their phones, but it really should be standard for the OS. Windows 7 already does it, and the Phone shouldn’t be any different. Easily being able to flick any media to nearby devices would be wonderful, then throw in some of that internet streaming that Windows 7 can do, and it’s perfectly interconnected world.

-Improve video play/media play back and recording: Hopefully the phones that have 720p video recording at 24fps can have that limit lifted. I’ve have different play back issues with some video’s playing for different services. Sometimes it’s stuttering, sometimes is audio sync being off, and others it’s just low quality when it shouldn’t. Whether it’s an OS issue, or if 3rd parties just need to be shown how to stream better, I just want a seamless perfect experience. (Also, could be hardware I guess)

-Improve app speed: I understand that a lot of slow app performance is because of poorly written code, but even if that’s the case then Microsoft has to be more proactive about helping 3rd parties overcome these issues, or even just point them out to 3rd parties when they submit their app. That said I have a feeling that the sandboxed nature of Silverlight apps does cause some issues, as most all of Microsoft’s first part apps scroll perfectly smooth while even the best 3rd part apps have some stuttering when scrolling. Optimizing Silverlight performance on the devices would go a long way to making 3rd party apps feel first rate.

-More and better use of Live Tiles: Slowly apps are coming out with Live Tile usage, but even still the way they are using them is still less than impressive. What’s worse is that even Microsoft’s own apps don’t seem to use live tiles to their full potential. If they are going to promote that the phones as glance and go, then need to push heavily for great examples of that working as it should.

-Notification: I really do love the “fierce reduction of unnecessary elements”, for example only showing status information like cell phone signal strength when it’s necessary, such as when about to make a call. All those little touches are brilliant, and I get the feeling those who always want to see that information are just too used to outdated ways of doing it, and want to complain because it’s “different”. Even considering that, I think the notifications can be improved slightly to add functionality while not becoming a mess. For one being able to see toast notification from e-mails would save time by being able to ignore messages that I don’t care about. Notifications like that should be able to be turned on and off in a case by case basis, as I would never want to get a notification from my junk e-mails, but I most definitely would from friends and family. Also adding some way to add persistence to old messages might be nice, as long as it doesn’t get as overwhelming as on Android where you basically have to clear out everything. It’s another fine line to get that right balance, but I believe that Microsoft could tweak it a bit and make it just slightly more useful.

-Lock screen: Adding more functionality for one, but having a more sophisticated timer is my main priority. First simply adding a separate timer for when it’s plugged it would be a big help. Next using an intelligent method to determine screen time outs would be helpful over the current overly simple timer. With Windows if you immediately wake up the screen right after it turns off, the OS knows to keep it on a bit longer next time, as you probably were just not giving any input at the moment. If the screen turns off on phone, but I immediately wake it up, the OS should take that as a cue that I want to keep the screen on a bit longer. First increase the time until the next time out, and keep doing so if I continue this interaction. Next, if I continually tap to bring up the brightness due to dimming, repeat the same process as if I had woken up the screen right away and extend the time out period. Also, give a grace period for the lock screen, if I reopen it right away, A) don’t show the lock screen, instead bring me straight back to where I was, B) don’t close down the App right away, leave it open but just turn off the screen, if I don’t wake up the phone within a few seconds, then continue to turn off the App like normal (unless it’s designed to work under the lock screen). Obviously these additions would add time that would be eating the battery, but if done intelligently enough it shouldn’t be that much of an increase, and besides if I’m waking up the device anyway, I want to continue using power, so really it’s just adding convenience to me. Also, the opposite can be true if the intelligent recognition notices that I don’t bother to turned the screen back on, or have fewer inputs. In that case turn the screen off sooner, to save battery. Or at the least, dim the screen far more quickly to see how I react.

-More orientation support: This really isn’t a big issue, if an issue for me at all, but i have heard a fair number of people wanting more landscape support. I can understand for those phones with a landscape slider keyboard this would be more important than those without a keyboard or the venue pro, so I take it there is some need for it. The start screen could have the tiles rotate in an animated fashion when turned landscape. I’m not sure what would happen to the double wides, but I imagine Microsoft could figure out something interesting. I hear time and again about adding an address bar for the landscape view in IE, but I have to say, unless it’s a drop down from taping the top of the screen, Microsoft better only add it over my dead body. Personally, I absolutely love the landscape mode without any UI. It actually let me just see the webpage as it is without anything to get in the way. If Microsoft does add an address bar only make it drop down if you tap or swipe at the top of the screen, and if that interferes with navigating on the page, make it a double finger swipe down, or at the least be able to turn that function on and off in the settings, as I really don’t want a dumb address bar ruining that clean view.

-More multi touch gesture support: I want to say I’ve seen a video that goes over all the available multi touch gestures that are available, but other than a few games, I really don’t see it being used in the OS that much. I understand that adding too many gestures can make it confusing for some to have to remember how to use all of them, but adding a few “power user” ones would be nice to add a bit of functionality that isn’t there already. In the previous example I suggested using a two finger swipe to bring down special menus where using one finger might cause an unintentional interaction to happen. As the OS develops I imagine more complex interactions will become necessary, thus leveraging those multi touch gestures might become just as necessary as well. At some point I imagine the simple alphabetically App list will become unruly, so adding navigation to that through other gestures might help add functionality to the start screen and app list. Even adding the alphabet jump view would be better than nothing.

I can see adding pinch to zoom functionality to the start screen might allow us to quickly expand and dive into live tiles for more information, without completely opening up the app. Imagine pinching outward on the email live tile or the calendar live tile to see more information about the latest message or meeting. The pinching out would allow the email live tile to take up an overlay of 4 tiles instead of 1 to quickly view addition information, while letting go or closing the zoom would return it back to its normal live tile size. A weather app could go from just showing you the current temp at picture of sun with clouds, to quickly showing you high and lows, upcoming changes, and even a preview other of locations. I think the best way to describe this would be a “peak” view to peak into a live tile to get additional information without having to resort to fully opening the app. Of course you could continue to dive deeper into the app by opening it, and even further this “peak” view could allow you to jump directly to a certain part of the app like a “jumplist” does in Windows 7. And if it ever came to the point where a folder view is necessary like with the iPhone (ugh, just threw up in my mouth again)… a pinch to peak gesture could be used to open grouped up tiles, such as for travel, work, etc.

-More integration with Windows: There’s a lot that can be done to integrate WP7 with our desktops and laptops: Media streaming and access;. Direct interface, control, and content usage from Media Center; Remote controls for backups, scans, large file downloads, etc.; Tight integration with similar products on both systems; Being able to open all 6 tabs from IE on WP7 onto the desktop when you sit down in front of it; Easily jumping from editing a Word document on the phone to on the computer and vice versa; Switch from playing music from the device to the computer in a simple, easy, and quick manner where the song basically fades from the phone and starts playing on the computer, thus having a better experience and saving the phone’s battery (not through DLNA this time, instead the computer is playing the music locally or streaming, but syncing up the transfer for a smooth transition.)

I imagine when Multitasking is more useful on the phones, that when I come home and sit down in front of my computer, I can tap one button on the phone and have all the multitasked apps that I’m using on the phone instantly start and sync my computer to their related programs. For example if I was looking at outlook on the phone, editing a document, listening to music, checking a few web pages, and looking up a location of that restaurant for tonight, that if I pressed this button on the phone, suddenly the PC in front of me opens outlook to the email i was looking at, has OneNote open to the page I was taking notes from, my music starts playing through my computer, or even better through my home surround system, IE opening all the webpages i was looking at and where on the screen I had left off, and finally a map opens of the location I was looking for along with reviews, etc. All this so I can continue to work not on the mobile device anymore since I’m home now, but instead on the bigger screen and keyboard in front of me. And then, as I’m done and leaving where I left off on my PC can be sync’d back to the phone, so I have that new restaurant info that I changed already sync’d and waiting on my mobile device. Ok, so this is a far off dream, but I truly feel that Microsoft is one of, if not the only company in the world that could pull this off. Not only that, but I think given their enormous size this should be the type of integration they should strive for. No matter if you’re on the phone, the computer, the tv, or a game, all their products should work seamlessly together in perfect harmony (yeah…. good luck… sigh)

Even if that insane degree of integration is years off, I still would settle for simple things like printing from the phone, file syncing, and media connectivity.

-Allowing 3rd parties more access to the phone: There are still a few things that 3rd parties don’t have access to besides the camera. I believe the digital compass is one. Also, certain 3rd parties should be allowed to have special access to the bare metal device, such as adobe for flash (here comes the virus train!) or Skype for VOIP systems. It’s something that can remain locked down for everyone else, unless they get special permission from Microsoft and are able to work with them so there aren’t other problems with the system.

-Location Aware: This might worry a few people, but having a service that changes based on location could add interesting automatic customization to the system. Imagine if the phone understood what the difference was between being at work and at home. Using the already existing location service, your phone could see that you’re at work, and then the OS could update settings and programs based on the fact you’re working and not at home. The live tiles could have a different arrangement at work, where work email is up top and that addicting Xbox live game gets moved to the button or even removed off of the start screen entirely. To help differentiate, the theme could even change colors, so you know easier which location the system sees you in. Then when you come home the system could update and automatically change the theme and move the tiles, putting music, pictures, and that addicting Xbox game back at the top ready for play. Other settings could change as well, such as ringing and alarm settings. Other things like notifications could change priority and importance depending on who they are from and where you are. If you’re out on vacation, work e-mails or game invites might not bug you whereas messages from other people who are vacationing with you would show up front and center. I would also like to see this work with meetings and appointments to be intelligent to know if you’re in one or not, and even go so far as to ask you if you want to send a message to your fellow coworkers if your phone determines you are too far away from your meeting location to get there on time.

-Marketplace: Separating out Apps from Music, etc. It’s nice that the Marketplace will put apps first if you are searching from the App marketplace, and will put music first if you search from the music hub, but really I would rather it only show results from the marketplace I’m in. If I search from the general marketplace, then it’s not as bad to see all results, but even then it would be nice to have pivots where I can quickly organize my search results, e.g., apps, music, etc.

Also, I would love if there was a download/purchase history view on the phone based off of our Live IDs for the Marketplace. That way I can see everything I’ve gotten before and can share/upgrade/re-download them faster than search through the marketplace individually.

-Navigation: Bing Maps voice navigation please. I hear its coming early 2011, hopefully that is true. But, it has to be able to work with the lock screen, either by preventing the lock screen or by multitasking and continuing to navigate even if that app isn’t front and center. It would also be nice if the Zune music was integrated so that it could still call out commands by quieting the music that is play, similar to what happens when an alarm goes off and music and media continues to play in the background albeit quieter.

-Podcast/Video download: Both Podcasts and videos from the Zune marketplace should be able to sync/download/stream from the Zune music hub. Podcasts should be able to update via RSS. Videos should be able to be streamed, just like they are able to on the Zune client or Xbox 360. If I have a Wi-Fi connection I should also be able to download videos from the Zune Marketplace to save it on the phone, while allowing play back for partially downloaded files.

And there’s probably a lot more where that came from too. Whew. I’ll check back if I remember anything.

Oh, and I do want to say that even with a list like this, the platform is incredibly solid. It’s really amazing what they have been able to do with this first release, but if they can even bring just a hand full of these features to the phones then it really will be out of this world.

-Zune Smart DJ
-Zune radio song recognition, and add to cart
-Zune related artists section
-Zune Social
-Zune channels, perhaps enhanced with your favorite artists, and those similar to them, a sort of expanded smart DJ list for you
-vid camera access for developers
-twitter integration
-option for unified inbox
-visual voicemail so I can see who called, the length of the message, when they called, the number dialed from, and listen to voicemails out of order
-groups for contacts: family, friends, work, etc., all user defined
-lock screen – tap the voicemail icon, drag it up to go directly to voicemail; tap mail and drag up to go to your inbox, etc.
-apps – make this like the zune hd album screen – tiles 3 wide, with the alphabet letters for quick jumps. Click the letter, and you drill down to that letter, and see larger app icons. This will quell complaints about the currently ‘dumb list’ of icons that can quickly become unweildy if you install a large number of apps.
-allow word, excel, and powerpoint to be pinned directly to the start screen and show in apps.
-enhance word, excel, and powerpoint to be fully featured editors
-allow pinned web pages to use the web page icon for its tile instead of a picture of the site itself
-allow downloading and opening of PDF files through IE Mobile
-Bing turn-by-turn navigation
-Bing maps landscape orientation
-use phone to control a powerpoint presentation through bluetooth
-calendar allow addition of other calendars from online services other than just the primary calendar
-allow mail to use the dark background with white text theme
-full skydrive integration…back up all documents to the skydrive and allow downloads from skydrive, through a dedicated skydrive app for browsing, but the uploads all occur automatically
-allow photos to be stored on your computer in folders intelligently, set in the software by date, keyword, etc.
-allow sending videos and audio files via MMS
-upload full resolution pictures to windows live and skydrive on sync.

-create ringtones from your music library
-have individual ringtones and message notification tones for each and every contact. I want to know who’s messaging me by their own notification tones
-market place search categorized under apps/games/music – I don’t want to have to pile through a mixed list when I’ve searched specifically for an app, not music.
-panoramic phone app, swiping between all calls, missed, incoming, outgoing
-easier switching between languages and keyboards
-device-wide search of e-mail, texts, contacts, contact posts
-people cards should include e-mail, text, and call history with that contact in swiping left/right, as well as pictures for that contact you’ve tagged, as well as their facebook/flickr/twitter pics in another swipe-page
-a KIN Studio analog as far as matching the design of the WinPhone 7 aesthetic, and being able to automatically see all pictures, contacts, texts through the web interface
-week view for calendar
-birthdays should show up on the calendar, and there should be a birthday/anniversary/holiday only view, as well as seeing those on the days they fall, and the ability to turn that on/off
-task synch with Outlook, and a task manager
-DLNA in all devices
-twitter integration with contacts, giving a twitter page for each contact
-ability to set search provider in IE mobile
-up to 8 or 10 tabs in IE Mobile
-in marketplace, swipe across for apps, music, and games. I don’t want to see them all mixed together…it makes it difficult to find the app I want when there are 50 albums and songs with the same search criteria.
-time/location awareness so that if I’m at work, it auto-silences and goes to vibrate, but once I get out at 6, it auto-changes the profile back to normal…with options for work, school, and home.
-long press the back button to get the last used apps (multitasking option?)
-Skydrive integration/access
-option to see on a person’s live tile missed text / call / e-mail notifications in the animations
-podcast synch over the air

For me, most important would be people cards getting call/text/e-mail history, pictures on them aside from profile/what’s new, add full office editing, panoramic phone app, show birthdays/holidays/anniversaries on calendar, and make the apps list like the Zune HD album list – 3-wide with letters

Another vote for a better web browser. The iPhone sets the bar here, and it’s going to be tough for me to stick with this product if it’s not on par with it.

The maps app is ugly. Text is far too large and sparse. Too few street names appear on the map, unless you’re zoomed all the way in. And caching map tiles either isn’t implemented or isn’t working, so it takes way too long to load the map. Honestly, I kinda hope Google ports over their Android maps app to WP7.

Marketplace: The “top” apps list only shows paid apps. I want to see the list of the most popular apps, both paid and unpaid. Again, this is something that Apple does well. If MS wants to feature paid apps, they already have a “featured” section of the marketplace for that.

I do like the software keyboard better than the iPhone’s – I tend to make fewer mistakes with it. Keep up the good work here.

That being said, my biggest concerns with the platform are the following:
* Device support / segregation. It’s not clear to me how MS is going to innovate on hardware features without creating feature segregation and ending up in the same situation as Android.
* Carrier/Manufacturer customizations. So far, I haven’t seen anything bad on my Samsung Focus. And I don’t want such customizations. I want a WP7 phone, clear and simple. Reading about some phones having different search behavior tells me that MS hasn’t drawn a hard line here.
* Marketing. Unfortunately, I think the message they’re sending is basically this: “you won’t want to use your WP7 as much as your iPhone or Android.” I think they need to emphasize that you can get simple things done faster, but they also need to communicate that it’s a device you can use casually for gaming, web browsing, media, etc… all things that intentionally take up time. Ignoring those is doing the platform a disservice.
* Another marketing point: I think that calling this Windows Phone 7 is also doing a disservice to the platform. Especially since they’ve also renamed Windows Mobile to now be Windows Phone 6.5. They definitely aren’t sending a message that this is a new device / platform. And if MS thinks that they’re leveraging the Windows Mobile brand, then I think they have an over-inflated self-image of that brand. I think they’d be far more successful in creating a new brand out of this.

All of these ultimately speak to the biggest concern: Developer buy-in. Unless these things sell like hotcakes, I’m not sure why a company would choose to prioritize development for WP7 against iOS or Android. And without a lot of good, innovative applications, this is going to be dead in the water.

I like what I’ve seen so far, but MS is going to have to innovate quickly if they want to succeed.

I love WP7, but there are a couple feature that I think should be added that would really make this a killer phone:

1. Overhaul the Zune app. When Apple launched the iPhone, the music capability was on par with an iPod. MS launched WP7 with a scaled down Zune featureset. They need to make it a FULL Zune app. Things like gapless playback and SmartDJ needs to be added soon. I also want to be able to initate a wireless sync on demand. Plugging the phone into the wall and waiting for a sync that may or may not occur doesn’t cut it for me. I want to push a button, either on the phone or on the computer, and watch everything sync, even if it’s not plugged into the wall.

2. Fix the calendar. I want to see ALL of my Google Calendar calendars, not just the primary one. Also, two-way calendar sync is virtually nonexistent. I can’t create an appointment on my phone and have it synced back to Google. This is more likely a bug, but it’s something that impacts me. I also want to see a better weekly view.

3. DLNA. I know it’s been said before, but MS has to include some kind of DLNA support. My “dream” feature would be for my phone to act as a mini Media Center. I launch an app and up pops WMC on my TV being streamed directly from my phone, the same way I can do this with my laptop. This would also be a killer feature; I can guarantee this will attract customers. Right now the iPhone has very crippled TV support. Since MS is already the de facto winner of the living room (with Xbox and WMC), this would be a natural extension for them.

4. Turn-by-turn navigation. I love the current Maps app. WinMo had turn-by-turn, so I would expect this to come in due time. However, I want this to be comparable to “premium” nav apps and GPSes. It should include things like highway lane assist and live traffic. I want to be able to replace my GPS with my phone altogether. This would allow the phone to excel above Android and the iPhone. They should look at all of the current major GPS manufacturers (Magellan, Garmin, TomTom, Navigon, etc), find all of their strongest points, and combine them together into the Maps app.

Fantastic list. I would like to add emphasis to the Zune marketplace needing to be available in other regions. I’m in Canada — right next to the USA. A big invisible line is all that keeps me from having access to the Zune music marketplace.

I’m so sad: iTunes is my only option for buying music. I hate iTunes. Somebody has to fix this! I can give my money to Apple, but Microsoft doesn’t seem to want it! :P

I had been thinking about the need for this list for the last week. I’m glad ou “heard” me ;-) and gave the list an excellent head start. These are my suggestions, NOT in priority order:

1. More than 1000 contacts on Live
2. Easier connection to Outlook Calendar published to Live
3. Voice input for all fields & documents
4. Support for tasks sync
5. Arrows on the keyboard
6. Easy sync for all Office file types
7. Better granularity in setting appointment details on the phone: alarm time, duration, repeat intervals, etc.
8. Ability to add a text message “from” cell phone # to People
9. Option to listen to “music”, really audiobooks, thru my Bluetooth headset, not just the speaker or headphones.
10. Screen shouldn’t lock during a phone call
11. If you turn the phone back on in less than the screen lock time, shouldn’t have to enter lock code, like Win Mobile.
12. Use People & prior typing as sources for typing suggestions.
13. More direct access to WiFi info/controls
14. UPDATE FREQUENTLY!!!!!!!! Don’t make us wait for “service packs”.
15. More complete implementation of landscape mode
16. Zoom or text size control in Message

I completely agree with many (if not all) of the suggestions above. WP7 is great, but I’d love to see it get even better. I’ve been keeping a “feature wish list” since I purchased my Samsung Focus on Day 1. Here it is:

General
• Separate volume control for alarms
• Task support (including sync with Windows Live)
• Custom ringtones
• Support for taking screenshots

Music + Video
• Smart DJ
• Single track repeat
• Support for channels
• Artist pictures in the “bio section” (like on Zune HD)
• The number of tracks in the Now Playing playlist
• Return to Now Playing by selecting the drop-down media control
• Music should default to the most recent view, not artist
• Now Playing playlist management (clear, save, etc.)
• Darken the text for played podcasts (like on the Zune HD), instead of just changing the hard-to-read unplayed count.
• Enable tap-and-hold menu for history/new additions to facilitate adding items to now playing, pinning, etc.
• Over-the-air podcasts.

Email
• Support for flagged items in Hotmail (flag/unflag and show all flagged items)
• Sync drafts folder with Hotmail
• Support HTML emails in accounts connected to Hotmail via Exchange (problem may be on the Hotmail end)

Calendar
• Support for multiple calendars on the same account
• More snooze options

An important things you’ve missed is that 3rd party apps need the ability to side load files. e.g. load files from locations other than just the internet or isolated storage. A lot of users I’ve spoken to (myself included) want to be able to consume media we already own on our PC’s using our smart phones.

Media playback for mp3 files that you stream (or download to temp storage; I’m not quite sure how it does it) from the browser isn’t wonderful – it looks like you’re getting the full media playback experience as though it was a local file, but the controls don’t quite work the same and are missing completely from the “toast” during playback – that needs to be fixed.

The Bing button should be locked while you’re playing a game (unless the developer has built in support for it). Capacitive buttons are too easily pressed when you’re trying to quickly hit on-screen controls. I appreciate that the back and home buttons can’t be disabled, but at least if the search button was locked you could probably rotate the phone to an orientation which meant you were less likely to knock them by accident.

There are a few things that are already on the list, or in earlier comments, that I really want too:
– OTA podcast support
– Screenshots
– Gapless playback
– Remote Desktop

I have to agree with billreiss about XNA and its’ difficulty with Facebook implementations. So this will be my first point.

Am I the only person using reception receipts for SMS’? I’d suggest an iteration of the reception receipt functionality; just notify the user without creating a (new thread of) message(s).

Change the application list as it is, in my opinion, very poor and not attractive; ever wondered why Microsoft never showed it in any video/presentation? I guess that they’re not proud of it and therefore they must pimp it up.

Mail app: Conversations mode where only the latest message of each thread appears in the default view of a folder – with a list of related messages available through a single drill-down. Ability to ‘Select All’ messages in a folder. Ability to specify ‘quiet hours’ for synchronization (i.e. non-synchronization). The ability to manage (at least to some extent) to manage file type associations – in the current version it is not possible to view a text file with .log extension received in attachment!

People hub: Separate (additional) view for all ‘non-people’ contacts.
Internet Explorer: Ability to access the address bar and other controls in horizontal mode.

Video: Ability to do other things with camera-shot videos other than view and delete (i.e. upload to SkyDrive, Facebook, etc.)

Other: Live Tiles that are actually ‘live’ – really, e-mail tiles that just show the number of new messages are just laughable…

I like the point about Play To, I played with the LG and it’s built in “Play To” feature and it was much like what I can do now from my Windows 7 machines, but it was odd that it was phone specific. I am really enjoying the whole experience and think it can only get better.

Based on my very unscientific study, it appears as though AT&T or Microsoft have set the data priority to use 3G even when connected to WIFI(on my Samsung Focus at least). All apps and the marketplace appear to use 3G, until I disable the cellular data connection. I would prefer that WIFI receive a higher priority, or that it be much easier to turn off the cellular data connection. Again, I’m not sure if this is a Windows Phone 7 problem, or just AT&T and the Focus.

I need more time to get more information, but yes. Last night I turned off the cellular data connection and watched a full episode on NetFlix and my data usage did not go up. The only reason that I even took a look was that I used up the 200MB data plan in 8 days, and the only time I’m not on WIFI is the 20 minute commute to work. Like a said, not very scientific at this point, but if this becomes a pattern, I’m going to have to choose between turning it off maually or getting the higher tier plan. I’m surprised that more people haven’t noticed, or maybe there is something wrong with my config.

I’m having this same problem on my HTC Surround and it’s incredibly annoying. I only took the 200 mb data plan so it’s eating though it rather quickly. Right now I’ve been keeping the cellular data off until I need it.

What I think happens is that the phone shuts off the wifi when locked. When the phone connects online, it has to start up the wifi and connect all over again. This can take up to 30 seconds, so the phone compensates by using 3G in the meantime. However, it seems like the phone doesn’t switch back to wifi until the data stream is idle.

This is what I’ve determined from my unscientific observations. I’m not sure if it is really the explanation, but it fits. One way I’ve seen this firsthand is if you wake the phone up, immediately go to the Uverse app and attempt to watch a TV show. There’s a chance that it’ll refuse and say to try again when on wifi, even though the phone shows that it’s connected to wifi. I think this is because the phone hasn’t switched back to wifi yet.

I have the Samsung Focus and I believe I’m having the same problem. It’s already an inconvenience to have to remember to get WIFI going without having to remember to turn cellular data off each time. Has anyone tried AT&T for answers? I’ll call tomorrow and post an update when I get more info.

Update: called AT&T and they are unaware of any problems related to this. They directed me to Samusung’s tech suppport 888-987-4357.. haven’t called yet but will post an update when I get more information.

Worth noting.. AT&T were also nice enough to offer waiving any overage charges if in fact there is an issue with wifi usage.

Here’s what a support MVP said:
“Wi-Fi is prioritized but there is no guarantee that Wi-Fi will always be used for data transfer if it’s available. Wi-Fi can sometimes drop connection or it can be switched-off if the device goes to the power-save mode. In such cases data transfer can use cellular connection even if Wi-Fi is set to be active. To avoid using cellular data you have to change setting: Settings – system – cellular – Data connection. By setting this to “off” you allow data through Wi-Fi exclusively.”

The empasis is mine, but it does show that the OS does this by design. I would assume that the permanent fix for this would be for Microsoft to either optimize the reconnection speed, force the OS to use wifi when in range (even if it means a delay), or always keep the wifi connected, even while asleep.

In store marketing – Currently it’s pathetic. End users will go in and compare an iPhone and Android phone which both have a ton of preloaded apps, contacts, games, etc… to a Windows Phone which has no contacts, apps, or games on them. It’s obvious what should be done to showcase this to people who actually pick up the phone to play with it (default FB account, live contacts, game demo’s, tons of the free apps, beautiful live tiles lighting up, etc…). Currently if I was a typical end user I would find Windows Phone 7 boring in the store without anyone introducing me to the phone and explaining it. And even then I might still find the phone boring.

IMO this is the #1 problem right now with Windows Phone, and I’m a technical person.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I went into an at&t store the other day to play with the Focus, and without some data and apps preloaded there’s not a whole lot to do, and certainly nothing really compelling where I said I gotta have it. Windows phones don’t really shine or become interesting until they become your phone.

I’m seeing a lot of good suggestions here. I haven’t read through all of the comments, but I have one thing that’s really been an annoyance that I haven’t seen mentioned so far. I would love for the Email tile to display the unread count. I have a gmail account that I use and the tile seems to only display “new” emails. If I click the tile, the count disappears, regardless of how many unread emails are in the box. Ultimately not a huge deal, but a minor annoyance that just doesn’t make much sense.

Notifications: Where’s the blinking red or green light on the surface of the phone to indicate you have an email, text or voicemail waiting? Currently you are forced to hit the power button get a view of the lockscreen to see if you have any messages.

here is my list.
1. Where is MSN messenger apps, i atleast expected MSN messenger to be available from Microsoft of their flagship phone. I was a blackberry user and used Gtalk and BB messenger a lot and was surprised to see that MSN messenger app missing
2. I need a customisable tile so i can check for any updates on the apps i have (msn money, 3rd party msn messenger, etc) there is no way to check whether or not i received an IM on my messenger or update on stock unless i open the app and refreshed it
3. Battery Life, Battery Life and Battery Life, i have an HTC HD7 and i cant even complete a work day without recharging (typical use – 40 mins in phone calls, emails, IM, checking market place)
4. Fix the search in market place, when i search for an app from “google” i dont want to see songs which has google in it
5. Arrow keys in the keyboard — i am new to the touch screen, so i often makes mistakes when i type, to fix the spelling is a pain unless i clear the whole thing and start over
(a virtual track pad on the screen which recognize the motion istead of the keys would be nice ( similar to BB track ball ))
6. When i type something and if i make a spelling error, i do get the red underline, why dont i get an option to click it and select the right spelling or give me a spell checker before sending the email or give me both. Right now, it tells me i type it wrong and do not give me any solution
7. Bing maps with traffic on is a nightmare even on good 3g coverage
8. more customizable options in vibrate mode, i am not a fan of ring tones and 99% of the time my phone is on vibrate mode, and there is no way to find out if i received a new email on vibrate mode unless i look at the outlook/gmail tile.
9. Screen shot tool is a def must, use my HD7 to testing our company website and it works great but no way to show them the screens.
10. PDF attachments dont always work when viewing.

missed this, def need this
11. Give option to enter Conference number along with the dial in code and promt along with the outlook reminer to join the call by dialling the dial in code + conf number.
12. Wait and Pause option in address book so when i make the international i can add wait option and then enter the pin number without typing them while i am on the call

1. When I type “whst” instead of “what”. The auto-correct will bold the suggestion and change it when I use the space bar. But if this is the last word in my text message, it will send it as is, even though it was going to auto-correct it. It’s just a small feature I remember my iPhone doing. It would auto-correct it before sending.

2. Seperate Ringer Volume and Media Volume. Also kind of on the same note, use the “vibrate/ring” button that comes down when you press the volume rocker and make it a “vibrate/ring/silent” button. Just add the silent option to the same button and it will toggle between the 3. This is needed because even on the Vibrate option games and other media will use sound.

3. More use of LIVE TILES !! I love them but there needs to be more features associated with this feature.

Everything else on Paul’s List is a welcome change. Thank you for such a nice first update!!

I’d like to see ability to add folders to the application list so you can manage your list of applications similar to how windows works. Every time you install an app it adds it to the list and the list is going to get unmanagable in no time. Having folders would at least give you the option to give your application list some organization.

I agree. Right now the app list is not a major problem, but it will be in the future. As a short term workaround, Microsoft should add those alphabetical headers to the list. That way it will be possible to jump around to different sections quicky. They also need to allow the search button to search for apps.

A longer term plan would be to either add folders, as you said, or possibly add more than one pivots to the app list for better sorting. If I could have one list of commonly used apps and then another list with all apps, that would be helpful.

I have noticed a small problem with the calendar where events that I had created in Outlook on my exchange account which are recurring to a certain point (end date), for example my class schedule, are all now perpetual. There is no option for setting an end date when creating or editing a series event in WP7.

I forgot to add, that it is imperative that Microsoft add separate volume levels to the alarms, I noticed that this was mentioned above, but I want to reiterate for emphasis. I nearly missed a class today because the alarm was so quiet as a result of my turning the volume down earlier in the day.

It would be nice if the phone could remember where you’d got to in an audio book, particularly if the recording was spread over multiple audio files. That “remembering” would need to last longer than just paused does at the moment. I.e. I want to be able to go from listening to an audio book, switch to music or a video and then switch back to an audio book and pick up from where I got to. Oh, and be able to restart if so desired.

It would also be nice if the month view for the calendar could be extended to show a couple of weeks either side of the month on display. My wife, for example, needs to plan appointments three weeks in advance. This will quite often span from one month to the next and being able to see an 8 or 9 week calendar would greatly simplify this. The UI could make it a smooth scroll just like it does when you are selecting time values, for example.

I also support the request for task synchronisation but would point out that if this is going to work across Hotmail *and* Outlook, the Outlook Hotmail connector will need to be improved as well because that currently does not synchronise tasks from Outlook to Hotmail.

Marketplace again:
Does everyone realize search (#3 button) results in Marketplace do *not* return the author, ratings, price in the result list. This is entirely inconsistent with the user experience when browsing the marketplace under categories, where those items are included in the list.

One example is search Marketplace for “Google”, and tell me whose application is from Google Inc., and which costs $$$.

Effective and complete search must be PRIORITY ONE for marketplace application adoption, in my opinion. It is currently broken.

Contacts: When viewing a contact – it would be useful to have more information available in addition to what is integrated with Facebook. For example, recent communications with that contact whether its email, text or phone. I think the Blackberry torch has functionality like this.

Is anyone seeing the constant 0% battery bug/issue after letting the phone’s battery exhaust itself and then recharging?

Here’s what happened to me twice now. I run the battery out to 0% so that the phone shuts down on its own. I plug it in to recharge it for an hour or so. When I unplug it, it alerts me that the battery is critically low life and I need to recharge it. The phone is fully charged because even though the battery life indicator still constantly shows 0%, I can still use for hours.

The first time it happened, a day later it just started showing normal again after a reboot or something. It’s currently on it’s second time doing this and I can’t figure out a way to get it to display normally – it’s still showing 0% after two days even though it’s fully charged. I charge it every night and also several times during the day.

Great list. Came from Treo. I’ve had an iPhone for two years. Really miss the keyboard integration. So I would add the following suggestions focused on keyboard integration that would bring over former Blackberry, treo users.

* Full landscape integration. So many of the sliders are horizontal. Android has this down. Everything you can do in portrait you can do in landscape. Especially tiles. Tiles have to be landscape. Right now this is really annoying.

* Work with phone makers to have search, home, and back buttons on the keyboard.

* Integrate physical keyboards better. Like the new palm pre, when I type on the keyboard, if there is a search bar, the typing should immediately appear there without requiring me to click on the text box. Similarly if I start typing on the home screen, it should immediately pull up search. Typing in explorer should immediately show up on the url/search box. Again Pre has the best integration of this but I think Blackberry’s work like this too. People will expect it coming from there.

* Please add hotkeying capability to physical keyboards. If the goal is “glance and go” I should be able to open up any application (and ideally call anyone) by holding down a keyboard letter or pressing search button and the letter (like Android). Palm had the best implementation of this on a treo. You could assign any app or any phone number to a letter. Hold down the letter and the app would open or it would automatically call the person.

I’ll just ditto a couple that has been mentioned. Direct sync with Outlook like the iPhone does. (Support your own products!)

*I would love the ability to create your own “hub” like the x-box hub or the people hub. Just an example, I have a “store locator” folder on my iPhone but as a hub it would be so much better than the iPhone. It would store all my “store locator apps” like my Starbucks app, my wells fargo app, my UPS store app, etc. It would essence act like folders, make it easier to find stuff (without just putting a ton of apps on the start screen) and solves some of the problem of the long scrolling list of apps.

The calendar is horrible. Comments already left are correct. The camera on the HTC is disgusting, making it an unusable “feature”. Live integration is barely existent. I need this MS mobile device to sync with my MS apps (Live) and my MS calendar (Live) just like my Contacts (Live). Whoever is heading the Live team over there at MS needs a butt-whipping.

I have bought and returned three separate Samsung Focus phones. Unfortunately, I gave up. I loved the WP7 software, but the hardware I kept getting simply was not working. I am still developing my own app for WP7, and I don’t even own one anymore. That’s how much I liked it.

My first Windows Phone put my GPS location at least a mile away from my current location. After returning it and experiencing a working phone, I found a lot of other things were broken in very odd, and unexpected ways. For instance, I could only move one live tile at a time before having to touch-and-hold again. Tons of little things were off, but something was definitely just broken with the hardware.

The second phone was actually great, with the exception that it would only charge directly from a computer. I could not use my iPhone USB wall adapter, nor could I use the provided Samsung USB wall adapter. It only charged from the computer.

My third and final Samsung phone was pretty good, except it charged incredibly slow. A full night charging in the wall adapter and it still did not hold a full charge according to the software. I also noticed with this model (and the others, but the other issues were more prevalent) that the phone didn’t work with my car’s (Hyundai Sonata 2011) built-in Bluetooth. I returned it and decided that I would wait until after Christmas, or a new model on AT&T, and just hang onto my iPhone in the mean time.

I loved the WP7 software, mostly. There are a few snags that most people have mentioned, but I feel like I can throw my own into the mix:

“Advanced” Bluetooth support is a must. I have become attached to this feature on other phones and since my state now requires hands-free while driving, I use it exclusively. I hope this comes with the copy/paste update, or some other minor update before March.

A searchable app tile list similar to the contact selection (by letter, at least). I love the live tiles and I do not mind scrolling there as I limit it to important things, but the exhaustive list can be just that.

Built-in developer access to voice-to-text.

Voice-to-text support in the texting application. Voice-to-text added to every keyboard, at least optionally.

A way to go “Up” in the text messaging app without hitting the Back button. I text a good amount and I found that if I was doing something else while texting multiple people, then it could be cumbersome to text the other person if I followed a notification to the latest person’s text. For example: Text Person A, and then go back and text Person B. Then go browse the internet. Person A responds and I hit the notification to jump to it. Person B responds as I am reading Person A’s response. If I now want to go to Person B, then I have to either press Back a lot, or leave the app and jump to Person B (or hit their notification, assuming I was ready). There are ways, but this should be faster.

IE9. I realize it’s coming in the summer update, but this really needs to be stressed to Microsoft. iPhone and Android crush WP7’s browser performance, though I like the browser user experience (with the exception that I have to wait for a page to load to forward to a friend).

More privacy controls. I really should be able to block access to my contact list for apps that have no business using it. Case by case:

Contacts – Obvious
Personal Info – Obvious
Location – Obvious
Phone Number – Less Obvious. Just because it’s on my phone doesn’t mean I owe them my cell phone number. I will provide it if I think they need it.
Phone ID – Windows Media Player asks about sending a unique ID, so why shouldn’t WP7?

Most important, this stuff should be toggle-able. Apps shouldn’t depend on any setting to be installed. I should be able to flip those switches to a default setting, per app before installing, and after they’ve already run.

Better contact import options. To transfer my iPhone contacts I went from Contacts stored in a vCard format, to GMail to Live. I would rather store my contacts in Live than GMail, but Live (not really a WP7 issue, per say) does not allow me to upload a vCard to import.

Faster typing correction. On each of my phones I was able to type faster than the auto-correction could generate its list. I feel like this is probably being worked on, but it actually slowed me down on more than one occasion.

A few suggestion, most have already been listed, but it’s nice to see another vote.

+1 Left /right cursor keys on the keyboard
Add the ability to get PDFs off the phone
+1 Week view in calendar. Also I can’t really see anything (in terms of entries) in the month view.
+1 Time sensitive and location sensitive settings.
> Go to silent for a particular time period or at a particular location
> Disable Wifi when not at a particular location (i.e. home)
+1 Turn off the camera shutter sound and remember settings.
Search in the email app should perform the search on the server.
Forward navigation in IE
Be able to lock the orientation (portrait or landscape). I want to be able to use the phone in portrait mode when lying down, but it keeps switching to landscape mode.

Probably too late to post this, but my primary vote is for WP7 to be able to download images using Gmail. Seems to be the most basic of features, though I’m sure you could say that about many of the issues listed above. However, I’ve seen that the issue might actually be Gmail based, so I’m not too sure what MSFT can do about that. Just thought I would mention it. Thanks for all you do, Paul.